ORINDA — The sculpture pieces that will ultimately make up one installation are a metaphor for piecing together the fragments of life, said Kimiko Kogure.

Titled “Healing,” each piece made of cheesecloth bonded together by willow branches remind Kogure of the time she was a child and she helped her doctor father roll up bandages that her mother washed and sanitized so that they could be used again.

“I associate cheesecloth with a bandage,” said the sculptor. “It’s comforting. Later, as an adult, this process of binding the pieces together became a process of healing myself through tough times.”

Kogure’s art, whether it’s sculpture or quilting, draws from her childhood in Japan.

No matter where you grew up in Japan, you always remember the moss that thrives in the country’s humid climate, said Kogure.

Fresh from a recent trip to Kyoto, Kogure said she was inspired by the time she spent at the Moss Temple just a week ago.

In fact, years earlier, Kogure recalled a visit to another place called the Silver Pavilion, which became a harbinger of more creations inspired by her Japanese upbringing.

“Outside the pavilion, there was fresh moss,” she said. “I wanted to make a quilt out of that. I wanted to recreate the atmosphere of the pavilion, that wonderful environment that I grew up in.”

The visit resulted in the creation of Kogure’s “Moss Quilt,” which will be among the quilts she will show at the Orinda Library Art Gallery’s September show. The remembrance of various shades of color, shape and form still influences her.

“I recall the subtle change of green from one rice paddy to another, which was why I chose to live in my home because I love being surrounded by green trees,” said the Orinda resident.

She actually uses the quilt, rather than hanging it on the wall.

“I made many sections of irregular patchworks small enough to remove on and off from the design. After entire surface was covered with pieces, I pieced sections together emphasizing the smooth continuity as if they are one whole family.”

Kogure taught sculpture at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, and credits her daughter, who took quilting classes with Orinda instructor Jennifer McCullough, for getting her into quilting.

“Assembling a quilt requires little more practical skill than sewing a straight line. The magic happens when you experiment and play with the fabrics to develop your design,” McCullough said. “Kimiko came to my studio with fantastic ideas right from the start. Using design and color expertise from her work in other mediums, she was able to put a new spin on the art of making quilts. It is wonderful to see these ideas coming to life.”

Kogure’s close friend Eli Hollander said he gets to witness a small part of the process of her quilting.

He describes Kogure’s creative process as ongoing, as she never stops thinking about her next quilt or about her last.

“It may have to do with a glimpse of a tree-bark on some moss, or a light-ray reflected off some water, or shadows across a path forming a pattern,” said Hollander, professor emeritus of the Film and Digital Media Department at UC Santa Cruz. “And then it may take numerous casual visits to garage sales, antique shops, and fabric stores, looking for pieces of cloth that say something or contain hidden stories from different times and places.”

He said her quilt begins to emerge from her initial concept and the process involves many months of looking and rearranging, stepping back and having “dialogues” with the evolving quilt, stitching and sewing, revising and deciding when the quilt is done.

“Looking at the finished work, I am touched by its intrinsic aesthetic meaning: it is now a quilt … a comforter,” said Hollander.

Kogure draws on her inherent affinity with Japanese aesthetics to create her work. She said that simple details such as a tiled roof or a doorbell in Japan have been carefully placed, and things are artfully arranged as though they were created by nature.

Making her “Sunset Quilt,” for instance, was her way of communing with nature, she said.

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